more on The so-called Apple music monopoly

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Patrick Sinz <patrick_sinz () yahoo com>
Date: May 23, 2006 7:36:23 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] The so-called Apple music monopoly

Mr Jacobsen's post in favor of Apple completelly misses the issues.
It is true that we do not have a monopoly, in truth we have a duopoly
where Apple and Microsoft are the only real "commercial music and video"
players.

You can of course put MP3 music (MP4 video) on "any player", but the
possibilities to actually get there files legally are dwindling.

Since the majors that keep as hostages most of the music that people
want to hear (or at least that they think they want to) and the
relationships between them and Apple/Microsoft is such that no other
player needs to apply.

Of course some music is avaiable, and the microsoft codec and decss code
you need are avaiable on the internet, but this is just a "show".

For years it has been technically possible to play a DVD on a Linux
platform, but the legal players that DO exist are NOT sold to the
customers, obviously if the companies that have created these software
to not care to sell them they must have some other incentive.

All the new online music stores are based on a propriatary windows file
and drm format.
And obviously the apple store is using its own propriatary format.

And increasingly "illegal content" and "ripping from CD or DVD" are made
difficult.

So if you want to access contemporary pop culture content you need
either to start a white collar criminal career, or pay the gate keeper.

The most amusing part of this is the reaction of the music industry in
France when the issue of a "legal licence" was discussed, it explained
that 5 to 15€ per month of taxation was absolutelly not enought.
And now we see many offers to "rent music" in this price range, the main
difference being that the money instead of going mostly to the artist
has to go to "promote the service".

The fight against interoperability that microsoft the majors and apple
are waging means that you will have only three markets:
iPods, Microsoft based players, "exotic players for the minority that is
happy to access only the 'free offers'".

In the pure software world I'm perfectly happy to "make without" if some
software is made "only by the other operating system maker", but in the
digital culture world it is a shame to let a duopoly abuse their power
to use the creators of music, videos and at some point books as hostage
to force the consumers to by their crappy operating system and business
models.

        It is still time NOT TO BUY an iPod
        and NOT TO BUY from Microsoft driven digital shops
        and it is urgent to do so.

Le mardi 23 mai 2006 à 02:07 -0400, David Farber a écrit :
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Ole Jacobsen <ole () cisco com>
> Date: May 22, 2006 8:26:25 PM EDT
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: The so-called Apple music monopoly
> Reply-To: Ole Jacobsen <ole () cisco com>
>
>
> A lot has been written about how you can "only" buy music for the iPod
> from Apple's iTunes Music Store, see for example:
>
> http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/22/technology/business2_launchpad0522/
> index.htm
>
> This, and most stories of its kind, completely misses the fact that  
> you
> can put ANY MP3 file from ANY source on your iPod, and it also misses
> the
> fact that you can convert any CD to MP3 using the iTunes (player, not
> Music Store) software.
>
> It is true that Apple has special DRM attached to the files you do buy
> from their music store (they use a non-MP3 encoding also), but  
> nobody is
> forcing you to spend money in this way. It is also true that you need
> iTunes in order to copy the music from your computer to the iPod
> (third-party hacks nothwithstanding). But iTunes is a free download
> which
> runs on both the Mac and the PC.
>
> The net is full of (legally) free MP3 files, MP3 files for a fee
> (such as
> audio books from audible.com), and of course there are millions of
> CDs to
> buy that can be converted and put on your iPod.
>
> Why does the press insist on propagating this myth?
>
> Ole
>
>
> Ole J. Jacobsen
> Editor and Publisher,  The Internet Protocol Journal
> Cisco Systems
> Tel: +1 408-527-8972   GSM: +1 415-370-4628
> E-mail: ole () cisco com  URL: http://www.cisco.com/ipj
>
>
>
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